Cranks spin but don't engage

Monkeyrick

Hi,
My mate was out earlier Today and his cranks didn't engage for a brief spell, they then started to work again.

The cranks, and cassette span but the back wheel was not spinning. He pulled the bike over to the side and, when he span the cranks again, it was fine. Strangely, the bike was then fine for the rest of the trip.

I'm kind of guessing that this means there is a problem with the free hub bearings, however I've never experienced this problem before, and don't understand why it would disengage, and then engage itself again.

Does anyone have any experience of this?
If it is the freehub, do I need a different tool to replace it (I have a few different cassette locking tools etc)?
If it is the freehub, can it be tightened up?
If it's not the freehub, what is it?

Thanks in advance,
Monkey Rick

freezing77

Stuck pawls, try dripping some thin oil into the hub. At the spoke end.

cooldad

Pawls as above.
Take the freehub off and clean/lube it.
In answer to your specific questions:
No.
Not as such.
Not much else it can be.

Monkeyrick

Cool, thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
Pawls it is then.

jimothy78

What hub is it? Some are easy to clean and re-lube, some aren't.

Monkeyrick

Not sure without looking. It's actually a specialized Allez road bike, according to the spec the hub is forged aluminium, double-sealed 32h (not very specific). I put it on the mtb part of the forum cos you guys are usually faster to reply

The Rookie

Monkeyrick wrote:

I put it on the mtb part of the forum cos you guys know about mechanical things

FTFY

Probably a generic one then (if it's not generic they'd name it!), Formula or Joytech would be the favourites.